Teleport map

We’ve got a prototype of a teleport map table set up on the small reference desk on Info Island. You can get to locations on the island by right clicking on any of the colored balls and choosing ‘teleport’. The four neighboring sims can be reached by clicking (left click) the table edge and then choosing ‘teleport’ from the map.

We’re going to add a second part that provides an intersim teleport to the major info islands. That’s forthcoming this week.

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Virtual reference toolbar

We’ve been offered a custom browser toolbar to assist in virtual reference.  A large number of RL libraries use these to assist on the desk by organizing resources. If you’d like to give it a try the toolbar can be downloaded at:

http://vreference.ourtoolbar.com/

Frequently asked questions

Some questions we get over and over again. In an analog library these are mostly “where’s the bathroom?”, “how do I work the copier?”, and questions about finding certain common resources. We learn these fairly quickly and most libraries have a file of those questions and their answers to help staff members. We currently lack this and we need  to fix it by finding out what the questions are and putting together a set of stock answers.

Here are some common ones which come to mind:

1) Where is X (where x=a specific resource or location) on Info Island. (We should probably put together a set of notecards with embedded landmarks for this).

2) How do I volunteer to help? (hmmm….I really need to do a notecard on that)

3) How do I make money in Second Life? (we have a card but it probably needs an update)

4) How do I open a box?

5) Why is this box on my head?

6) How do I stop dancing? (If you’re on Info International have them click the big purple thing at the desk)

Testing, testing, 1…2…3…

Hello everyone and welcome to ‘Reference in a Virtual World’, the shiny new blog of the online virtual references services offered on the Information Island Archipelago. We’ve created this blog to provide a public forum for announcements and discussions about reference services offered in Second Life.